'Do Tell is an absolute marvel: page-turning yet thought-provoking, historical in its setting yet contemporary in its concerns. . . A deeply moving, immensely satisfying, blockbuster of a debut novel' Anthony Marra *** The summer read of 2023: A whip-smart, glamorous and poignant debut set in Golden Age Hollywood It's the 1940s and Hollywood character actress Edie O'Dare is on the last year of her contract with FWM Studios. With the clock ticking and opportunities dwindling, Edie uses the few resources she has-her eyes, ears, and insider access-to pivot to a new role in the Tinseltown machine: gossip columnist. In exchange for favourable coverage, her sources trade exclusive information that will boost the column's popularity. Soon, Edie realizes she has far more power on the page than in front of the camera. Following a glamourous celebration at which the entire industry, including Edie, are in attendance, an underage starlet accuses the country's most popular actor of sexual assault, claiming he cornered her in an upstairs bedroom while the party was in full swing downstairs. When Edie receives a letter from the actress, she must decide whose story to tell, whose reputation to ruin, and how to influence where public opinion will fall. As Edie reluctantly determines the fate of her former peers, one by one-actors, executives, publicists, and costume designers-she must fight to maintain relevance and a precarious foothold in the town that coined the phrase you're only as good as your last role. Praise for Do Tell: 'Like our intrepid narrator, TO BEGIN AND BEGIN AGAIN manages to be both funny and substantive, breezy and wise. I stepped into the stream of the narrative and didn't look up until I came to the last page' Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House 'There is little more alluring than the promise of secrets, and Do Tell is full of them--glamorous, tawdry, and human. Lindsay Lynch has created a rich portrait of the lives of early Hollywood's beautiful puppets and those holding their strings' Emma Straub, author of This Time Tomorrow 'Gossip columnist Edie O'Dare has enemies and sources, but no friends in a Golden Age Hollywood whose gleam is tarnished by exploitation, cruelty and betrayal. Like a latter-day Cecil B. DeMille, Lindsay Lynch deftly directs her large cast of morally complex characters to illuminate issues of fame and notoriety as relevant now as they were almost a century ago' Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
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